Thursday, February 25, 2016

SEIU-UHW
President Dave Regan has suffered
yet another setback in his $25 million quest to forge a secret "partnership"
with the California Hospital Association
(CHA).

According to
court records, Regan has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit that SEIU-UHW filed against
CHA’s top officials just 12 weeks ago.

Here's
what's going on:

In November,
CHA officials announced they were ditching Regan in favor of their new pals at
the SEIU California State Council
and the California Teachers Association.
Like a jilted lover, Regan angrily
sued CHA CEO Duane Dauner in
Sacramento County Superior Court, alleging Dauner violated their secret
"partnership" deal and was a "saboteur."

The CHA
then counter-sued Regan, asserting that SEIU-UHW is barred from filing any
lawsuits against the CHA due to a secret gag clause signed by Regan.

The gag
clause, which has now
emerged in court documents, not only prohibits SEIU-UHW from suing hospitals
or their execs, it also blocks the purple union from "raising concerns
about... executive compensation in health care," initiating or supporting legislation
that's "adverse to the interests of the hospital industry," saying
"derogatory" things about corporations and their bosses, etc.

When a
process server attempted to deliver legal documents to Regan's home on behalf
of the CHA, Regan allegedly pushed the process server down the stairs of his
home, breaking his arm. The District Attorney will decide whether
to file criminal charges against Regan, according
to CBS News.

As for the dueling
lawsuits in Superior Court, it looks like the CHA has come out on
top.

Here's an
excerpt from a sworn declaration submitted to the judge by Matthew Silveira, an attorney for the CHA, describing the phone
call and e-mail he received from SEIU-UHW's attorneys announcing "that UHW
had filed a Request for Dismissal of this action in its entirety."

Thursday, February 18, 2016

It describes
the police investigation into SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan’s alleged assault on
a process server who attempted to deliver legal documents to Regan on behalf of
the California Hospital Association.

Regan, who also serves as a Vice President of the Service Employees International Union, is now
apparently hiding from reporters.

Regan's attorney, when
contacted by CBS News, offered the following (super credible) explanation for
Regan's assault in which he pushed a court worker down the stairs
(whose injuries required medical attention) and then attempted to intimidate a
police officer:

"... this
is an outrageous attempt of intimidation by the California Hospital Association… the process
server tried to intimidate Mr. Regan and his 9-year-old daughter… and refused
to leave the home when asked."

Way to go, Dave!

This story
aired at the top of CBS's 6:00 pm newscast on February 16, 2016.

This
morning, Politico picked up the
story in its "Morning
Shift" publication with a piece entitled: "SEIU VP Accused of
Assault."

Regan, who
is the President of SEIU-UHW, also serves as a Vice President of SEIU
International, based in Washington DC. In recent weeks, he
reportedly broke the arm of a process server who was attempting to deliver
court documents, authored by the California
Hospital Association, to Regan's home in Kensington, Calif.

KENSINGTON (CBS SF) — The vice president of
a union representing two million members has been accused of assaulting a
process server at his Kensington home, and intimidating a police officer
investigating the incident.

Dave Regan is accused of pushing a process
server down the steps of his Kensington home, refusing to be served legal
documents in a dispute with the California Hospital Association.

Police say the server was injured and had to
have medical treatment.

When police got to Regan’s home, they say he
was aggressive and tried to intimidate the officer.

Kensington police Chief Kevin Hart says the
case is now headed to the District Attorney’s office.

“There may be video that we are trying to
obtain to get a better idea before we turn that all over to the DA,” Kensington
Police Chief Kevin Hart said.

Regan is a union heavyweight.

He is president of the SEIU’s-United
Healthcare Workers West, which represents more than 150,000 workers in
California, and he’s a vice president of the larger SEIU, which has two million
members.

He is known in union circles for his
sometimes combative behavior, with one union blog going so far to call him an
SEIU thug.

In 2008, Regan was at a now notorious labor
meeting in Michigan that erupted into violence. In 1995, police in Ohio
arrested him for disorderly conduct.

Tasty doesn't
yet have video footage of the TV story, but will post it as soon as he does.

SEIU's assault on Labor Notes

It
reportedly includes an interview with the Chief of the Kensington Police Department,
a statement from Regan's attorney, discussion of Regan's 2008
violent assault on the Labor Notes
Conference, and Regan's
1995 arrest in Ohio for "disorderly conduct."

Intriguingly,
the police are now looking for video footage of Regan's alleged assault in Kensington.
Tasty's hunch is that Regan’s neighbors have security cameras on their homes,
which may have recorded the incident. Kensington is a high-priced residential
enclave with a median home price of $1.1 million.

The emerging
details of Regan's "Kensington assault" put into sharper focus his
history of intimidation, bullying and violence… as well as top SEIU officials' support
of Regan's "old
school ways."

This history
is well-known to insiders, and is even spelled out in a
lawsuit that alleges that Regan and other top SEIU officials -- including President Mary Kay Henry and President Emeritus
Andy Stern -- violated two
California civil rights statutes by carrying out a plan of assault, battery,
intimidation, threats and coercion in an effort to silence SEIU's critics.

The suit,
filed in 2011, is now heading towards a trial date in San Francisco Superior
Court.

It was filed
by multiple rank-and-file members of SEIU-UHW, two of whom faced death
threats after voicing criticism of Regan and SEIU. Other plaintiffs include
elected leaders of NUHW, including Sal Rosselli, who were ousted from SEIU
in 2009 after criticizing SEIU leaders' backroom deals with employers and SEIU's
undemocratic internal practices.

The lawsuit
includes gritty details of the retaliation faced by SEIU's critics, including
25 paragraphs alleging "specific acts of assault, battery, intimidation,
threat and coercion directed at plaintiffs and other NUHW supporters by persons
purportedly affiliated with the SEIU."

Friday, February 12, 2016

Here are more
e-mails exchanged by SEIU-UHW and
the California Hospital Association (CHA)
during the course of their arm-breaking legal battles.

In the first
e-mail, a CHA attorney -- Curt Kirshner
of the Jones Day law firm -- reports
that the CHA "has filed three arbitration complaints against UHW which
should be scheduled for hearings."

According to the CHA, SEIU-UHW violated three separate provisions of a secret gag clause that prohibit SEIU-UHW from suing hospital corporations, supporting legislation
that's "adverse to the interests of the hospital industry," and saying
"derogatory" things about hospital corporations and their bosses. The gag clause was signed by SEIU-UHW's President, Dave Regan.

Regan's gag
clause is so far-reaching that SEIU-UHW apparently violated the
no-derogatory-comments rule when it called CHA CEO Duane Dauner a "saboteur."

The second
e-mail is a response from SEIU-UHW's hack attorney, Bruce
Harland, who works at the Weinberg, Rogers
and Rosenfeld law firm. In 2014, Harland worked hand-in-hand with Regan to write the secret
deal with the CHA -- aka the "Code of Conduct" -- including its gag clause.

In this
e-mail, Harland
acknowledges that SEIU-UHW is bound by the deal's gag clause and arbitration clause. He also
makes a final, pathetic plea to the hospital bosses to cough up 30,000 non-union
workers to SEIU-UHW.

In so doing,
Harland reaffirms the "centerpiece" of Regan's dirty deal with
hospital bosses: a "money-for-members" quid
pro quo in which Regan agreed to deliver $6 billion in public Medicaid
funds to hospital CEOs in exchange for the right to unionize up to 60,000
California hospital workers without employer opposition.

Here's an
excerpt from Harland's e-mail. A full copy of the two e-mails is below.

Second, with respect to the first two
complaints filed by CHA, UHW is willing to arbitrate these disputes, under the
Code of Conduct, so long as CHA and the hospital signatories meet the
obligations that they are required to satisfy, under the Code of Conduct, by
January 1, 2016. These obligations require, among other things, that "[b]y
"January 1, 2016, various hospitals and health systems in California
execute a conditional agreement providing access rights to the Union at acute
care hospitals in California for at least 30,000 (30,000) non-union,
non-supervisory employees." Sec. D(2) If the hospitals or health systems fail to
execute such agreements, then "the Union shall be released from all
further obligations under this Agreement..." Id . CHA has already
announced to CEOs that it will not satisfy this obligation, and Mr. Dauner has
expressed to UHW’s President that the likelihood of CHA and the signatory
hospitals executing such an agreement is "highly remote." In
addition, despite the Union's best efforts, CHA and the signatory hospitals
have failed to agree to a conditional access agreement.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Sources
report that SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan was arrested after breaking the arm
of a process server who served legal documents, authored by the California
Hospital Association (CHA), on Regan at his home in Kensington, California.

According to a reliable source, the Kensington Police Department will soon forward Regan's arrest records to the District Attorney for possible criminal prosecution.

Four sources
have corroborated the incident. Here's what they say.

The process
server reportedly attempted to serve the legal documents when Regan answered
his front door on Beloit Avenue.

Regan, rather than accept the documents, violently pushed the process
server down the stairs, breaking his arm. When the police arrived at the scene,
say sources, Regan got into an altercation with the police and was arrested.

According to
court records, the CHA recently served a variety of legal motions on SEIU-UHW
officials in response to Regan’s November
2015 lawsuit against the CHA.

On January
25, for example, a CHA process server delivered legal motions to SEIU-UHW's
attorney, Eduardo Roy of Prometheus Partners, at the firm's a
law firm in San Francisco. Those documents sought the court's permission for the
CHA to formally intervene in Regan's lawsuit.

On January
26, the CHA filed
its own lawsuit against SEIU-UHW alleging that Regan violated a gag clause
contained in his secret partnership deal with CHA officials.

For those familiar with Dave Regan’s history, the reports of his arm-breaking
assault will not be surprising. Regan reportedly has a history of violent
encounters, including fistfights at SEIU events, some of which were reportedly
fueled by alcohol.

In 2008, Regan led busloads of SEIU staffers and supporters in an attack against a national conference held by "Labor Notes," a network of union activists seeking to democratize and reform US labor unions. Regan's troops violently forced their way into the conference in Dearborn, Michigan, where they reportedly punched, kicked and knocked participants to the floor.

Regan's troops assaulting the Labor Notes conference: 2008

One female conference attendee was sent to the hospital with cuts and other injuries to her head.

Tragically, one of the members of Regan's union at the time, SEIU 1199 West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, died during Regan's assault from a heart attack.

John Sweeney (then President of the AFL-CIO) denounced Regan's attack on the conference, stating: "There is no justification -- none -- for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU," according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

When Regan
parachuted into California in 2009, sources say he schooled SEIU-UHW's staff in his "old school ways,"
including the use of threats and intimidation against the union's members and
its critics.

During a 2009 election among homecare workers in Fresno County, SEIU staffers reportedly threatened immigrant home care workers with deportation unless they voted for SEIU-UHW, according to TV news coverage and video-taped testimonials of workers and SEIU staff.

During NLRB elections
at Kaiser Permanente, SEIU-UHW employed
a "World War III" strategy designed to intimidate its members by employing, for example, violent "shout downs" against union members.

In one
infamous incident inside a hospital cafeteria, SEIU-UHW staffer Tiffany
Ford issued death threats against Kaiser employees… for which a Los Angeles
Superior Court judge imposed a restraining order on her.

Another
SEIU-UHW staffer, Liz Castillo, became
a YouTube sensation (88,000 views) for her violent assault in a hospital
cafeteria captured on
videotape.

SEIU-UHW -- including
staffer Angela
Hewett -- even threatened and intimidated
80-year-old labor legend Dolores Huerta,
who co-founded of the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez. In one
incident, SEIU-UHW representatives shamefully screamed at Ms. Huerta to "go back to the
fields."

All of which raises important questions:

Why did SEIU officials -- including Andy Stern and Mary Kay Henry -- install a man with a history of violence to head a union of healthcare workers in California?

And why have Henry and SEIU's International Executive Board allowed Regan to remain in his seat atop one of SEIU's largest local unions in the nation despite his repeated acts of intimidation and violence -- including his latest assault against a processor, who good just as easily be a union member?

Are SEIU presidents and officers permitted to break the arms of court workers without being held accountable?

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Here's the
lawsuit that the California Hospital
Association (CHA) filed against SEIU-UHW
on January 26, 2016 in Sacramento Superior Court.

In the 11-page
suit, the CHA asks a judge to toss out SEIU-UHW’s
November 2015 lawsuit and to force SEIU-UHW into binding arbitration per
the terms of their secret "partnership" agreement.

The lawsuit discusses
the "money-for-members" quid
pro quo in which SEIU-UHW President Dave
Regan agreed to deliver $6 billion in public Medicaid funds to hospital
CEOs in exchange for the right to unionize up to 60,000 California hospital
workers without employer opposition.

The lawsuit
also offers new details about the massive gag clause that Regan wrote into his secret deal with CEOs.

In addition to the terms of the gag clause
already detailed in previous
posts (e.g., no "anti-employer activities," no
"derogatory" comments about corporations and CEOs, no regulatory
complaints or legal actions against hospital corporations, etc.), we learn that
Regan also agreed to block SEIU-UHW from "raising concerns about...
executive compensation in health care."

What does
this mean?

For at least the past two years, Regan has blocked SEIU-UHW from writing leaflets, issuing press releases, or even talking to
legislators, journalists and the public about hospital CEOs' excessively fat
paychecks.

So much for
speaking out against the CEOs who’ve created the worst wealth
inequality crisis in the United States since the 1930s. It turns out that SEIU -- a
company union that's for sale to the highest bidder -- is bought and paid
for by the CEOs.

For SEIU-UHW's members, Regan's secret gag clause will help explain why their union hasn't issued a single leaflet criticizing their bosses' multi-million dollar paycheck…
even as they try to ram pay and benefit cuts down their throat.

Finally, here are
some excerpts from the lawsuit. A full copy is below.

On May 5, 2014, CHA, UHW, and a number of
California hospitals and health systems entered into an agreement entitled the
Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct sought to "create a new model for
labor relations that is based on cooperation rather than confrontation,"
including by laying out "a labor-management relationship as reflected in
the code of conduct" and ensuring that "every opportunity will be
taken to resolve differences quickly and in a professional and
non-confrontational manner." (p. 2)

UHW agreed that it would not engage in "reputation
or economic attacks; personal attacks; or instigating or supporting...
litigation" that was "directed at or with respect to CHA... and any
of [its] officers, directors, managers or shareholders." UHW also
specifically agreed that it would not "sponsor or support legislation,
initiatives, or regulatory action adverse to the California hospital industry
during the terms of this Agreement." (p. 3)

The Second Complaint addresses UHW’s efforts
to qualify California Initiative 15-0111, "Hospital Executive Compensation
Act of 2016" ("Compensation Initiative") for placement on the
2016 California ballot. As CHA explained to UHW in its November 30, 2015
complaint, the Union's decision to sponsor the Compensation Initiative violated
Sections I(B) and II(C) of the Code of Conduct, and in particular UHW’s agreement
not to "sponsor or support... initiatives adverse to the California
hospital industry" or make comments "raising concerns about...
executive compensation in health care." (p. 6)

Upon learning of the [UHW] lawsuit [filed in
November 2015], CHA notified UHW that it viewed the litigation as a violation
of Section I(B) the of the Code of Conduct, which prohibits "instigating
or supporting... litigation" that is "directed at or with respect to
CHA or signatory hospitals or health systems and any of their officers,
directors, managers or shareholders." The CHA also noted that the
inflammatory language UHW had used in its complaint -- labeling [CHA CEO Duane]
Dauner a "saboteur" and accusing him of "corrupt acts," for
example -- constituted a separate violation of the Union's duties to refrain
from "reputation... attacks" or "personal attacks" directed
at CHA and its officers and to avoid "derogatory comments" about CHA.
(pp. 7-8)

The Code of Conduct anticipated that signatory hospitals might choose to execute "Conditional Access Agreements," which would provide UHW access rights at California acute care hospitals in the event of "the achievement of a legislative or political solution that meets the previously agreed upon goal of obtaining full Medi-Cal funding and payments to hospitals for services rendered to Medi-Cal beneficiaries...by December 31, 2016." … The parties agreed that "[i]n the event that, by January 1, 2016, an insufficient number of hospitals or health systems execute Conditional Access Agreements to meet the requirement of [UHW access to] thirty thousand (30,000) non-union, non-supervisory employees..., the Union [would] be released from all further obligations under this Agreement and this Agreement shall terminate." Upon such termination, "all of [the Code of Conduct's] terms are terminated with respect to all signatories." (pp. 3-4)

Monday, February 8, 2016

Here's an e-mail
from Duane Dauner to Dave Regan that helps explain the legal battle that's
raging between SEIU-UHW and the California Hospital Association.

It highlights a gag clause that Regan wrote into his secret "partnership" deal with the hospital industry.

According to Dauner, the gag clause is so far-reaching that it blocks SEIU-UHW from supporting legislation, taking legal action, and even exercising free speech.

On November
24, 2015, SEIU-UHW filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court calling Dauner "corrupt"
and a "saboteur." It alleges that Dauner (CEO of the California
Hospital Association) and two other executives violated their responsibilities
to a joint "partnership" committee by entering into an agreement with
the SEIU California State Council to sponsor a statewide revenue-generating
ballot initiative that competes with Regan's preferred initiative.

Two weeks
later, on December 7, Dauner sent the following e-mail to Regan (SEIU-UHW's President)
notifying him that SEIU-UHW's lawsuit violates the gag clause in
Regan's secret deal with the CHA (aka, the "Code of
Conduct").

Under the gag clause, SEIU-UHW is prohibited from calling Dauner
a "saboteur." Why? Regan's gag clause prohibits SEIU-UHW
from making "derogatory" comments about bosses.

Furthermore,
the gag clause blocks SEIU-UHW from filing a lawsuit or taking any legal action against the CHA…
or against any of "the officers, directors, managers or shareholders" of the corporations that signed Regan's deal.

Oh... and
SEIU-UHW can’t initiate or support any regulatory action or legislation -- including ballot initiatives
-- unless it first gets the approval of the hospital industry's bosses.

Regan's gag
clause is so broad, in fact, that it bans SEIU-UHW from carrying out any "anti-employer
activities" whatsoever!

In the end, we'll likely see that Regan's sell-out gag clause is the source of his own undoing -- a sort of self-administered guillotine blow to the cervical region.

Here are
some excerpts from Duane’s e-mail to Dave (full text is below):

Dave,

CHA hereby gives notice of its complaint
that SEIU-UHW's litigation against C. Duane Dauner, Gregory A. Adams, Mark R.
Laret, James R. Holmes, and Caring for Californians, LLC (collectively,
"the Defendants") violates provisions of the Code of Conduct,
including Subsections I(B) and II(C)...

In particular, under Section I.B of the Code
of Conduct, SEIU-UHW is prohibited from "carry[ing] out or engage[ing] in
any ‘Anti--Employer Activities,’" which are defined to include
"instigating or supporting... litigation" that is "directed at
or with respect to CHA or signatory hospitals or health systems and any of
their officers, directors, managers or shareholders." The Union's decision
to file a lawsuit against CHA's President and three of its officers is a clear
violation of this provision.

Furthermore, the inflammatory language
SEIU-UHW uses in its complaints -- labeling Mr. Dauner as a
"saboteur" and accusing him of "corrupt acts," for example
-- constitutes a separate violation of the Union's duties to refrain from
"reputation... attacks" or "personal attacks" directed at
CHA and its officers and to avoid "derogatory comments" about CHA. (Sec.
I.B.1 and I.B.2)

These recent actions make clear that
SEIU-UHW has abandoned any pretense of compliance with the Code's requirement
that it address differences with CHA through "cooperation rather than
confrontation" and "in a positive manner." (Preamble, Sec. I.B.1)
The CHA therefore intends to bring this complaint to Arbitrator Ahearn promptly,
seeking an order requiring SEIU-UHW to immediately withdraw both lawsuits and
prohibiting SEIU-UHW from filing similar litigation in the future.

One of the CHA's
suits -- filed last week -- says SEIU-UHW's original lawsuit should be tossed
out because Regan, in his secret deal with the CHA, signed an "arbitration
clause" that prohibits him from taking disputes to the courts. It also asserts
that Regan violated the deal's "gag clause," which SEIU-UHW famously
denied even existed.

So, in a
stroke of poetic justice, the CHA has been forced to hand over a copy of
Regan's secret deal in order to prove its case! A source snatched copies from the court and sent them to Tasty.

For nearly
two years, Regan has stubbornly refused to allow journalists and the public to
even catch a glimpse of the deal. In fact, he refused to show it to SEIU-UHW's
members and even its "Executive Board," the union's top governing body.

Last year, NUHW
filed a complaint with California Attorney General Kamala Harris over Regan's gag clause. That complaint was based on an unsigned version of the deal that was leaked to NUHW. At the time of the complaint, SEIU-UHW officials vigorously challenged the authenticity
of the unsigned version.

Now… we have
a SIGNED version of the deal with Dave's "John Henry" at the bottom! (See
a full copy below.)

The CHA
lawsuit also contains a trove of previously unseen documents… including a one-page "Side Letter" signed
by Regan and the CHA's Duane Dauner on May 5, 2014.

The
documents detail the deal's corrupt "money-for-members" quid pro quo in which Regan agreed to deliver $6 billion in public Medicaid
funds to hospital CEOs in exchange for the right to unionize 60,000 California
hospital workers without employer opposition.

Regan agreed to force the newly unionized workers into cheap, pre-negotiated labor contracts with substandard wages and benefits, a gag clause, and a ban on strikes.

Regan’s newly outed "Side
Letter" also details the creation of a $100 million political slush fund
-- using $20 million of SEIU-UHW members' dues money -- to help hospital CEOs
boost their profits at taxpayer expense.

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